While waiting for this new budget to be adopted, a consensual project of “special law” to ensure the continuity of the functioning of the State will be examined on Monday by the National Assembly.
The transfer of power is scheduled for the afternoon.
General interest government
This appointment comes three days after an unprecedented meeting of party leaders, excluding Rassemblement national and La France insoumise, under the aegis of the head of state. Where the contours of a “democratic cooperation agreement”according to the formula of Mr. Bayrou on Tuesday: the government would undertake not to use 49.3 to impose its laws, the opponents not to censor it, Emmanuel Macron evoking for his part his intention not to dissolve the law again. Assembly.
The centrist leader was ultimately preferred to other names which circulated until the end, such as that of the former socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the ministers of the right wing of the macronie Sébastien Lecornu or Catherine Vautrin.
Thursday, it was the profile of the former Minister of Industry Roland Lescure, a social-liberal Macronist, who was pushed by the Secretary General of the Élysée Alexis Kohler, according to several sources close to the consultations. But the right and the RN stepped up to block it.
The former head of diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian, who has accompanied Emmanuel Macron since 2017, bluntly let him know that he had “denied” Matignon, judging that “it wouldn’t be serious” to accept at 77 years old.
It is an arrival at Matignon that looks like a particular consecration for the distant Minister of Education (1993-1997) who has long been aiming for the highest office: tireless defender of an independent center, François Bayrou was three times a candidate for the presidential election from 2002 to 2012, without reaching the second round (18.57% in 2007).
His alliance with Emmanuel Macron in 2017 cleared the way for the election of the youngest president in history, carrying a “at the same time” right-left in line with its political project.
But the Béarnais, appointed Minister of Justice, only stayed 34 days at Place Vendôme in 2017, prevented by the affair of the MoDem parliamentary assistants, judged in first instance seven years later, in February 2024. If the party has was heavily sentenced, François Bayrou was acquitted, but the prosecution appealed.
Since 2017, the mayor of Pau has regularly distilled criticism against the politics – too right-wing – and the practice of power – too personal – of his ally, without ever departing from his solidarity.
No censorship from the outset?
Shortly after the announcement of the appointment, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella assured that there would be no “no a priori censorship”.
Mr. Bayrou should, on the other hand, suffer censorship from La France insoumise. “Bringing down Bayrou will bring down Macron”warned LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, describing this appointment as “new arm of honor for democracy”.
The failure of Mr. Barnier, Prime Minister chosen in September by Emmanuel Macron while the left demanded Matignon, puts pressure back on the Head of State and the Prime Minister.
Has the situation changed? If the Socialist Party, and to a lesser extent the communists and ecologists, have given some guarantees of compromise, pushing their alliance with LFI within the New Popular Front to the brink of rupture, not sure that they frankly support François Bayrou.
The centrist, who has advocated for ecumenical governments for decades, should try to retain ministers from the right-wing Les Républicains party, with whom relations are historically tense. Nicolas Sarkozy notably used his influence to prevent this appointment to Matignon.
Mr. Bayrou should also turn more to the left, failing to convince the members of the New Popular Front to participate in the government.
On the RN side, the president of the MoDem could benefit from having provided his sponsorship to Marine Le Pen to compete at the Élysée in 2022, in a gesture intended to defend the “pluralism”.
